The Four Principles of Leadership for a Masterful Life

I do not about you but the beginning of this year for me has been incredibly slooow…as if 2013 just did not want to start! Yet it is already the end of January and I am staring at the list of ideas and plans I wanted to be done by now…in vain!

My list is holding me captive and I remember that I might have a few tricks in my pocket to jump out of my spiritual destitute. The Four Principles of Leadership is part of a training I did for a corporate company but it is revitalizing to gain momentum and start taking more conscious steps to ensure 2013 does not sink into the sea of unfulfilled years as some of the previous ones. I am certainly in need of changing gears, so I am reminding myself of how to be sharper, more purposeful and clear.

So what do we need to lead our lives masterfully?

Take Your Own Journey into Being – There is a common misnomer amongst people who love personal development and want to find real meaning and purpose in their life. We often think that the more we do, the more we are. That by having a long list of “to do” and “action”, we conquer more of the world, therefore we succeed. Well, here is what I know for sure about this:

Successful people, high achievers and leaders of their own lives are the ones who managed to conquer themselves. Not lists, not projects, not action plans but themselves.

Doing is always easier than being. Doing can often serve as an escape mechanism for people from their being because when you are doing, you do not need to deal with the elements of your personal life that needs work. (I mean emotional work, like working on our lack of confidence, negative self-beliefs, shadows…I could go on and on).

When we work on how to BE the person we want to be in life, somehow the doing bit falls into place. It really does. Projects get moving, money flows, ideas come more naturally and we feel we are living, breathing and enjoying life deeper. Which takes me to the next point…

Resolve Life Challenges by Going to a Deeper Level – Life is never going to be flawless. That is not the job of Life. Its job is to mirror where we are and how we are doing with our selves. Its job is to test that we know the lessons we assumingly learnt from incidents of last week, last month or from a divorce or a challenging relationship. I do not know exactly what that “deeper level” is but I do know that really successful people dare to go to that deeper place within them and of a particular problem they face. By going deeper I do not mean sitting on an issue for years and I tell you why. I know a lot of people who think they are chewing on solutions but in reality they are trying to force life to give them what THEY think the solution is.

Going deeper is a flow where you are not scared to hear from others or from yourself the Truth! The real truth. It takes courage and incredible spiritual power to master how to hear the truth about your flaws, weaknesses, wrongdoings but when you do, you have a real toolkit in your hand! That is when you are not scared of facing yourself and are ready to move forward from that deeper place.

Reduce resistance– I love when people say “I am really easy-going”. Usually, they end up being my most stubborn and hard-to-move clients. Resistance is a giant enemy of progress and a masterful life. “Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything”- goes the saying and this is particularly important for us to learn if we want to lead a life of purpose and meaning.

What we resists, persists and as long as we are able to readjust our approach to things, we can manoeuvre our way through life with ease, open heart and full spirit. The truth about resistance is that it is one of the creepiest states of being. We resist so many things and we are not even aware of it! We resist being truly happy deep down and no wonder we end up having really difficult relationships in our life! We resist being successful at the deep, soul level and of course, we mess up our career opportunities! Resistance makes everything work against us. So when things do not work my way, I take a good look and think what am I really resisting? Believe me, the answers to my quest normally fly back really fast!

Integrate Reflection and Connection to prepare for a masterful life– Reflection is one of the most powerful tools and leaders are true masters of it. As for us, toddlers of leadership of our selves , reflection on its own does not mean we have learnt our lesson! Reflection is only valuable when you integrate your learning into the very next situation you will be called forth to practice it! This takes a lot of mental and spiritual awareness as well as courage but this is the only sure way that you do not lose valuable time to change patterns of behaviour, mental blocks and habitual ways of doing things. This is where a mentor, supervisor or coach can be extremely helpful because he/she will see the things you have been doing repeatedly from an objective perspective providing valuable insights into your inner workings.

What about connection? I am seeing a huge change in the whole idea of leadership not only in the corporate world but in other areas of every day life, too! We no longer divide the world into leaders and followers; we are beginning to see and learn that everyone is potentially a powerful leader contributing snippets to the success of the “whole”. It reassures me that when I think that way, I have more hope to work on my own success and purposeful life because somewhere, somehow it will matter. And your life matters, too! So do not waste it!